ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026
The ESRC Festival of Social Science (FOSS) is a national showcase of research, delivered through a vibrant and creative programme of engaging, participatory events for public audiences. We are now inviting applications for FOSS 2026, which will be run this year as a competitive funding call, with a strong emphasis on partnership-building, civic benefit, and meaningful public engagement.
Discover more
More details are available in the FOSS event leader pack.
Discover what we achieved last year through our 2026 evaluation report
Festival Dates:
17th October – 7th November 2026
Festival Theme:
The non-compulsory theme for this year will be Money, Finance and the Cost of Living, exploring areas such as:
Personal finances
Teaching children about money
Understanding and support for the cost-of-living crisis
The economy and how it works
How businesses make money
Starting your own business
Funding Details:
Funding of between £500 and £1,000 is available for each event. As the programme continues to expand in scale and impact, the 2026 application process will be competitive, and early applications are encouraged.
Funding is intended to support the design, delivery, and evaluation of high-quality public engagement activity, and our strategic focus for this year places particular value on strong, genuine partnerships with non-academic organisations.
We are especially keen to support activities that demonstrate clear civic or community benefit and that have been co-designed with partners or public groups from an early stage. Proposals should move beyond one-way communication and instead prioritise interactive, participatory, and creative engagement that creates value for both communities and researchers.
FABSS IAA Team Support:
Julia Warsap will support all applicants with event design and public engagement, marketing, ticketing, and evaluation, and access to shared resources and templates. Other administrative support will be available from your Departmental admin team, and events are expected to be led proactively by their academic teams.
Who Can Apply:
Applications are open to academic staff, research staff, and postgraduate researchers affiliated with the University. Where a postgraduate researcher is applying, a named academic supervisor must act as the event lead and be involved in the management and delivery, as well as being the funding holder.
How to Apply:
All applications must meet a set of essential criteria to be considered.
- Each event must be based upon University of Surrey social science research (at least 51%) but can be interdisciplinary with researchers from other faculties.
- Preference will be given to events that involve at least one non-academic community or industry partner. Partners may include community groups, charities, local authorities, cultural or creative organisations, schools, educational organisations, businesses, or industry bodies. Partners are expected to play an active role in shaping and/or delivering the event, and it will be helpful to share details of how this has occurred in your application.
- Events should ideally take place off campus, within community or partner settings, to strengthen local engagement and civic connection. Based on previous delivery experience, on-campus events require particular attention to promotion and audience development; where proposed, applicants should therefore outline how they will reach relevant non-academic audiences and deliver meaningful community benefit.
- All events must be designed for non-academic public audiences. Event applications should clearly identify the intended audiences and show careful consideration of accessibility, inclusivity, safeguarding, and audience experience. Interactive or participatory elements are strongly encouraged, and lecture-style formats are unlikely to be competitive unless there is a clear rationale and strong engagement element.
- Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate co-design or co-production with partners or communities, creative or innovative engagement formats, and alignment with existing ESRC investments or priority research areas/REF ICS.
- Proposals that show potential for longer-term legacy or follow-on activity beyond the festival period will be particularly welcomed. For example, many of our festival activities result in future applications for IAA funding or strengthen existing University/ESRC investment areas.
- Applications should also demonstrate a realistic and proportionate use of the budget, gaining value for money wherever possible.
- Applicants should be willing to engage with our FABSS IAA public engagement training programme and attend at least one workshop if possible (but will be welcome to attend any or all).
Public Engagement Training:
Event leaders will be encouraged to attend the workshops in our annual ‘Spotlight on Public Engagement’ programme. Details will be launched soon but sessions will include;
- Introduction to Public Engagement – Dr Jamie Gallagher
- Identifying Audiences – Anna Salaman
- Engaging Events – Dr Jamie Gallagher
- Storytelling for Festivals – Duncan Yellowlees
- Media Interview Training – Robert Taylor
- Camera Ready! Presenting/Video Production – David Roylance, Anna Brees
- Social Media for Researchers – Dr Jamie Gallagher
Awards:
Funding decisions will be made by a review panel, based on alignment with our 2026 partnerships focus, the quality and feasibility of engagement plans, and the available budget and delivery capacity.
Closing Date:
17,00 Friday 17th April 2026
Timeline:
- Panel Review – Weds 22nd April
- Awards announced – Mon 27th April
- Planning Period – April to September
- Marketing commences: August onwards
- Delivery period: October - November
- Evaluation: November - December